Esther Neira de Calvo (1890–1978) was a prominent educator, feminist and women's right advocate. She was the first woman elected as a National Deputy to the Third Constituent Assembly in Panama. She was the founder and president of the National Society for the Advancement of Women and of the Women's Patriotic League, and actively worked for Panamanian women's enfranchisement, finally attained in 1945–46. She served as Executive Secretary of the Inter American Commission of Women from 1949 to 1965 and was Panama's Ambassador to the Council of the Organization of American States from 1966 to 1968.
Biography
Esther Neira de Calvo was born on May 1, 1890, in Penonomé, Coclé, when the Isthmus of Panama was a Colombian Department. Her parents were Rafael Neira Ayala, member of the National Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Panama in 1904, and Julia Laffargue de Neira. She began her studies in Penonomé and Taboga, continuing in Panama City at the Normal school for Women.
In 1904, soon after Panama separated from Colombia, the first Government of the Republic of Panama offered her a scholarship to study education in Belgium. She spent the next eight years studying at the Pedagogic Institute Wavre Notre Dame, Belgium, affiliated with the universities of Leuven and Brussels. During this time she earned degrees as primary school teacher and professor of pedagogy, specialized in secondary education and administration; professor of French and English languages, and professor of physical education. She also earned certificates as a nurse for community hygiene, a first aid attendant from the Belgian Red Cross and as voice professor, endorsed by the Antwerp Conservatory of Music. She traveled throughout countries of Europe, studying their cultures and languages. In 1912, she moved to the United States where she studied American education programs.
Educational work
Esther Neira returned to Panama in 1913 and began her professional career as a professor of pedagogy at the Normal School for Women. Later, she became a professor of Hygiene and Childcare at the Professional School.
At age 26 she married business man and public servant Raúl J. Calvo in 1916. Married for 42 years, Neira de Calvo was widowed in May 1958. The couple had one daughter, Gloriela Calvo Neira.
She continued her career in the field of education. In 1923, she accepted the position of Inspector General of secondary, normal and professional education in the Secretariat of Public Instruction until 1927. That same year, she returned to the Normal School for Women, Panama's only teacher's training school for women. In addition to directing the institution, she taught comparative education, pedagogy, psychology and French. After eleven years as the Directress, she left the Normal School in 1938 and organized the Women's Lyceum, a university preparatory school for women which she directed until 1945, when she was elected a National Deputy to the Third Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Panama.
Feminism
Esther Neira de Calvo had been involved in Panama's feminist movement since the second decade of the 20th century, fighting for the recognition of women's civil, political, economic and cultural rights. Esther Neira de Calvo and Clara González were undisputed leaders of that struggle.
As a delegate of Panama she attended in 1922 the first Pan American Women's Conference, organized by the League of Women Voters of the United States, held in Baltimore. There she shared experiences with Carrie Chapman Catt and other women who participated in the struggle for the 19th constitutional amendment of 1920 that granted political rights to the women of that country. Neira de Calvo also worked with feminist leaders from Latin America, such as Brazilian Bertha Lutz and Chilean Amanda Labarca.
That Conference was the incentive she needed to dedicate her life to the struggle for women's rights. The following year, 1923, Neira de Calvo founded the National Society for the Advancement of Women, together with prominent women of the time, such as Nicole Garay, Esperanza Guardia de Miró, Otilia Jiménez and Beatriz Miranda.
In 1926, she organized and chaired the Inter American Women's Congress, the first international feminist congress in Panama, in parallel to the Bolivarian Amphithetical Congress of 1826.
In 1938, when only five countries in the Americas recognized the right of women to vote and to be elected to political life, she was appointed by the Panamanian government as a delegate to the Inter American Commission of Women (IACW), an organization created in Havana in 1928, to work for the extension of civil, political, economic and cultural rights of women.